With Love, Our Promise
by katsuji74
Summary: Virtual Reality Minecraft Love Story. What more could you want? Rated M for suggestive themes, as well as drug use and violence.


With a gasp, Dylan's eyes shot open, and he found himself face down in the dirt. Pushing up with his arms, he felt the grains between his fingers, the soft earth seemingly grasping his palm. A smile slowly spread across his face as he stood up and looked around him, finding himself surrounded in wilderness. Oak trees grew up into the sky, their leaves swaying in the breeze. Patches of long grass moved in tandem with the leaves, and the sun peaked over a hill in the distance. Dylan looked down at his hands, and closed his fingers into a fist, feeling the pulse in his veins.

"I'm back!"

_Chapter 1: Return to Minecraftia_

Dylan marveled at the realism of the world he was in. Since the invention of Full-Dive-Gear, gaming had taken a leap in technology, allowing players to fully immerse themselves into games. All of their senses were perfectly recreated in this virtual reality, allowing him to feel the sun on his skin, and the wind in his hair. He breathed deeply, smelling the forest as if he were actually there. Stretching his neck muscles, Dylan put on a serious expression. "Okay, time to set up camp." Looking at his back, he found a canvas bag, and unshouldered it to check the contents. A few cans of pork and beans, a lighter, a pocket knife, some rope, and a wire saw. Without any hesitation, Dylan selected the wire saw and set about clearing a space around his spawn, cutting down trees and rolling them over to the side for later use. It was obvious from Dylan's practiced movements that this wasn't his first time in this situation.

Minecraft had gotten many updates, including the adition of new weapons, items, tools, block, difficulties, etc. One such difficulty was "Stranded," in which you play the role of a ship-wrecked survivor with basic gear, hardcore difficulty, and realistic settings. The mobs, however, were still in the game.

By the time Dylan had made a small clearing about ten meters wide, the sun was beginning to set, and his stomach was grumbling. He quickly and skillfully built a large fire pit in the center of the clearing, using stones about as wide as his hand to contain the flames. He pulled out a can of pork and beans, and stabbed the top of the can with the pocket knife. With a sawing motion, Dylan set about prying the can's lid open before placing the metal container close to the fire to heat it up. Dylan had learned not to eat straight out of the can, as the first time he had played ended with him dying from food poisoning on the third day. The young boy sat beside the fire with a sigh, before realizing he hadn't rigged a shelter yet. Wondering whether or not to do it right then, the sound of a twig snapping caused Dylan to whip his head around. At the edge of the clearing, caught in the uncertain light cast by the flames of Dylan's fire, was a walking skeleton, a large longbow in its bony grip. Caught by surprise by the monster's sudden appearance, Dylan was nonplussed for a moment before rolling sideways, having registered that the mob had brought an arrow to the bowstring. As he moved, the sound of the skeleton's teeth clacking together and the thrum of the bowstring as it was released made him realize he'd been an inch away from death. Literally. Standing up, Dylan saw the fletching of an arrow sticking out of the fire pit, the flames licking at the feathers as sparks flew everywhere from the force of the bow. Flicking the blade out in his pocket knife, Dylan rushed the mob as it attempted to notch another arrow. Dylan's arm came up and back as he aligned the shot, before throwing the knife at the skeleton, the blade spinning end over end and gleaming in the fire's light as the last rays of light disappeared from the sky. The knife, not properly weighted, nor designed to be thrown, slammed into the skeleton's skull handle first, knocking it from the vertebrae as its arrow flew wide, the force of the metal knife unbalancing the mob and throwing off its aim.

By then, Dylan had quickly covered the short distance between him and the monster, and with a desperate lunge, the boy tackled the skeleton's abdomen, shattering the invisible bonds holding the bones together, scattering them in all directions. Before it could begin reforming, as he knew it would, Dyaln grabbed the skull, and smashed it into the earth, the sound of an inhuman wail filling the air before dying away with the sounds of bells, the bones exploding into a million pixels, leaving behind orbs of multiple colors, or experience as they are called.

As the XP orbs slowly converged on Dylan, the boy sighed in annoyance as he picked up the mob's bow. He found it to be a crude weapon, made of multiple pieces of wood wound together around a piece of heartwood. Glued together with adhesives made of boiled down antlers, the bow was quite well made. However, it seemed to have been made some time ago, as some of the strips of wood and animal glue was decaying considerably, and smelled quite horribly. Dylan tested the draw weight, using his thumb to pull the string back in the traditional Mongolian draw style, and found that, despite it's lack of maintenance, the bow was quite powerful, and would be a useful tool. He skillfully unstrung the bow, and tossed it into the flattened grass near the fire as he sat back down to enjoy his meal. Using a thick bundle of leaves, Dylan picked up the can and blew on the surface to cool it before digging in.

...

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><p>...<p>

The sounds of feet pounding the earth and a young girl breathing heavily from exertion echoed through the forest, followed by a myriad of noises from all kinds of monsters. The groans of zombies, the cackling of witches, the chattering of skeletons, and many more unidentifiable sounds that would instill fear in the bravest of men. The girl dared not look behind her, for fear that she might faint then and there from fright, and so continued to push on, hoping to outrun her pursuers. Her hunger bar was getting dangerously low, as was her stamina. Dammit, she thought, if only she had had time to level up her base stats. Then she wouldn't be struggling right then. "Dammit," Catherine Spitzer gasped, ducking in surprise as an arrow flew past her ear. Looking over her shoulder, Catherine's foot snagged on a root, and she tripped heavily. "Oof!" she grunted as the breath was knocked from her lungs. Catherine tried to stand up, but was pushed back into the ground by something pressing against her back. With her cheek pressed into the dirt, Catherine turned her face to look up at the decaying monster that stood above her, the smell of reeking flesh permeating the air. "No... no!" she gasped, her breathing quickening as panic set into her mind and all thoughts turned to escape. The zombie opened its mouth, spittle flying everywhere as it growled in an inhuman manner. "Please, no!" she screamed as the zombies piled onto her body, their teeth sinking into her flesh.

...

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><p>...<p>

"Dammit!" Cathy shouted in anger, chucking her VR headset across the room. Luckily, the rather expensive gaming equipment landed in a soft beanbag chair in the other corner, the sound of the air compressing accompanying her sigh as she swung her legs over the edge of her bed, putting her head into her hands. Cathy's room was quite well furnished, and reflected her character and interests to a T. Immediately to the right after entering was Cathy's L-shaped desk, with the short leg pushed against the wall, with a gap between the long leg and the wall with her door big enough to fit her racing chair with room to push back from the desk. Her beast of a rig, nicknamed the "Iron Giant," consisted of five ASUS ROG SWIFT monitors arranged in a trapezoid on the long leg of the desk. The short leg was custom built, with the top made of two inches of glass, and the inside filled with continually processed and cycled liquid coolant. The computer was inside of the liquid coolant, which lessened heating of the parts to prevent damage, and was top of the line, from the processor to the motherboard. With over four petabytes of data, and a processing speed comparable to a supercomputer, it was obvious Cathy had spared no expense.

Cathy stood up, shaking her head as she grabbed her phone, sling pack, and headphones and made for the door. "No point sitting around and getting angry," she told herself as she turned the handle and pulled it open. Might as well head for the gym, she thought to herself as she made her way through her house and to the front door. "I'm off," she called over her shoulder. The empty house gave no reply as Cathy pulled the door close behind her.


End file.
